How HR can protect itself from bias and toxic emotions
As people who are prone to receive toxicity – not by harmful chemicals but from employees who are dealing with a mix of emotions, stress and pressure from an organisation – HR Staff have a lot on their plate and have to try to remain neutral.
The Human Resources (HR) professionals that help employees cope with difficult situations experienced in the workplace and the key stone to the working environment. We know that being surrounded by negative emotions might take a toll on one’s mental health. We tell ourselves “It’s just a job”, but it is always more than that, it is something that you do passionately for 8 to 10hrs a day. Exposure to other people’s toxic emotions can be dangerous too. Some people are a sponge and soak up the negativity. It can drain them.
HR is generally a department that is in charge of delivering communications directly to employees. Whatever information a company has for its internal stakeholders, the HR professionals are involved in the careful and strategic dissemination. Even communicating the bad news about the company to its employees would be tasked to the HR. What’s even worse is when these HR practitioners receive hate for something they did not decide on, they are simply the middle person. There are instances where HR professionals are blamed if there is a disruptive organisational decision.
If you are working in HR, you know that you are expected to perform a lot of tasks for management while working on advocating and protecting the interests of employees at the same time. If you are working for two sides of the organisation, how could you, as an HR professional, protect yourself from bias and toxic emotions?
- Learn to say ‘no’ – there are favors that may be hard to resist, but for the sake of your peace, there is nothing wrong in declining requests from colleagues.
- Prioritize work-life balance – doing overtime in office is sometimes inevitable however, you should also remember that work is not everything that you have to focus on. The best decisions are made when your mind is relaxed and this will help you perform better for the best interest of the business and the employees dependent on you.
- Focus on self-care – your mental health is the top priority, if things are going too far, that causes you stress then maybe it is the time to hand in that vacation leave request form. How can you look after others, if you can not look after yourself first?
